Malaysia was a rather low-scoring affair and none of our four semi-finalists were able to escape that fact. What it means is that both semi-finals remain incredibly close. The highest remaining seed, icemanjee1, has opened up a lead of a solitary point over Exediron, courtesy of correctly predicting Daniel Ricciardo's eighth podium finish of 2017. The other semi-final is now a two-race affair as both Herb and TypingChicane were able to forecast Lewis Hamilton would come home in second place. Herb maintains the smallest of advantages by virtue of being the higher seed. Heading to Japan we could technically have both finalists confirmed, but it would require both of Icemanjee1 and Herb to claim perfect podiums and neither Exediron nor TypingChicane to score a single point. And in the interest of fairness, I should also point out that if those results were reversed, it would leave both Icemanjee1 and Herb requiring an almighty effort in Texas. No impartiality here

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

An exciting result that could have been fizzled out on the first lap along with Sebastian Vettel's title hopes- err, I mean engine power. Hamilton was left to take a surprisingly uneasy win from Max Verstappen, with the other Red Bull rounding out the podium.

Every single entrant had Vettel somewhere on the podium, so any chance of a Perfect Podium was wiped out almost immediately. More surprising is that although two people did have Verstappen in second, nobody collected the 8 points that would have been on offer for getting the first two place right. The winners therefore both predicted Hamilton to win and Ricciardo to finish third, and they collect their 6-point glory as a result!

Sadly, one contestant who will not be collecting any points is TheDamus, who did not file a prediction before the beginning of FP3.

We have a new championship leader! TypingChicane had been threatening to catch and overhaul mcdo for some time, but it finally happened here in Suzuka, thanks to a no-score on the part of the former points leader. Other position changes include Black_Flag_11 jumping to 4th over Jezza13, Icemanjee1 and Exediron; Mayhem also finally breaks the tie with Jenson's Understeer - although both scored, Mayhem scored one more point.

Further down the order, Lotus49 and robins13 both jump Remmirath, whose loyalty to Ferrari has not been paying off in competitions of late.

In the team standings, there is only one change - Drive Sauber loses 5th place to the defending champions Mind Your Manors. Significantly, however, team leaders Jalopy Racing failed to score a point, and their lead has been eroded from 11 points to only 4 heading into COTA.

Sand Bag'n are the team winners this round, a no-doubt welcome change from their usual fortunes this season.

At present, everyone is still in contention for both titles. Depending on how things go in America we may start to see our first 'Championship Picture' section show up at the bottom.

Also, a notice for everyone - I will be traveling to COTA, and almost immediately afterward leaving for an unrelated trip. I will do my best to get the update in before the race after, but it might not show up right away. The exact speed of the update will depend heavily on how well I do.

When Max jumped Dan I thought we were in business there but that lasted about 30 seconds. Finally some points though,yay.

Not just Honda getting the elbow unless I buck my ideas up I think.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Well, we had a little more scoring in Japan but not by a great deal. In the first of the two semi-finals, our highest remaining seed Icemanjee1 continues to creep towards a place in the final. We saw a repeat of the score from Malaysia as the two semi-finalists managed just a solitary point between them, again going the way of Icemanjee1. Meanwhile the second semi-final was a relatively high scoring affair (at least compared to the first semi, anyway!) as TypingChicane banged in three points to take a 6-3 advantage into Austin.

That being said, with the relatively low scoring first two rounds, everything remains to play for in the final semi-final round. It wouldn't take a great deal for Exediron to cause an upset and eliminate Icemanjee1 (it could be as simple as correctly identifying 2nd place, should Icemanjee1 fail to score a point). The same can be said for Herb, who could yet avoid being eliminated by a lower seed by simply predicting the runner-up in Austin.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967